More Big Box Quality

[Mope Head]

So, I stopped by the local WM and, as usual, did a drive-by through the bikes. I was eyeballing an end-cap display of five Cranbrooks for $88.00 each. Admittedly a good price for a new bike. Buuuut...of the five bikes on display, two had the forks backwards...

Ok. So they had a knucklehead putting them together. Easy fix. Then I started looking them over and spotted this quality weld...

Yikes. Even the "good" welds were sloppy. But, having said all that, $88 is nearly tempting enough to buy and strip it down for the parts. Wheels, tires, fenders, bars and grips, seat, etc..

 

[heartlandcruisers]

So, I stopped by the local WM and, as usual, did a drive-by through the bikes. I was eyeballing an end-cap display of five Cranbrooks for $88.00 each. Admittedly a good price for a new bike. Buuuut...of the five bikes on display, two had the forks backwards...

Ok. So they had a knucklehead putting them together. Easy fix. Then I started looking them over and spotted this quality weld...

Yikes. Even the "good" welds were sloppy. But, having said all that, $88 is nearly tempting enough to buy and strip it down for the parts. Wheels, tires, fenders, bars and grips, seat, etc..

well that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
what really stinks is some unsuspecting person who doesn't know bikes is gonna buy this and ride it and get hurt.
i truly hate wal mart just for stuff like this. their quality control should have spotted that.
i was a bike assembler for wal mart and after every assembly i did an inspection to look for flaws.
hope they find that before someone gets seriously hurt.
my amateur welding skills look better then those do and i don't even know how to weld.
Sean..

 

[deorman]

A few years back, I went to K-mart to buy a cheap bike for a weed whacker style motor kit I picked up. From 10 feet, the Schwinn and Huffy bikes looked like the same thing. Once I got within 4 feet, the 30 bucks more for the Schwinn was clearly worth it. If you just want some basic wheels in black, 88 bucks is about as cheap as it gets. I wouldn't trust that Huffy frame any further than I could throw it.

 

[Nagant]

A person certainly does have to look the welds over very closely on the Huffy cantilever cruisers. I've seen some horrible welds on some them as well. Most of the time they are just sloppy, uneven, slag splattered.... but functional. I've seen a few of their frames where the cantilever bars were welded very unevenly. Talk about head scratching odd looking.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Wow that weld is bad!

Luke.

 

[mikeeebikey]

"I wouldn't trust that Huffy frame any further than I could throw it."

No no no, I wouldn't, even with good welds, the metal is squat!
I think we all agree Kulana frames are better than Huffy, right?
Anyway, it broke at the seat tube, not at a weld!

"If Huffy made airplanes, would you fly?"

 

[dragnusa]

I would point the bad weld out to a manager and get a few dollars off of it and either repair it or part it out. If it was one of the main frame welds I would worry more Ive had a few cantilever frames that has had just small tack welds in that area.

 

[kingfish254]

 

[dougfisk]

.... If it was one of the main frame welds I would worry more Ive had a few cantilever frames that has had just small tack welds in that area.

Bingo. The "cantilever" tubes are purely stylistic and are in no way structurally important to the front triangle. That frame may well break, but it won't be where you are focusing your attention, or as result of that weld.... (in my humble opinion )

 

[mikeeebikey]

I had a Monteray I built for a store bike, a throw downer!
My wife went to the store a couple times with it, and on the third trip back she said I needed to ride it, wiggled really funny, and not ha ha funny.
after looking it over thoroughly for any cracks or deviations in the tubing or welds.....I determined it was way less quality that I wanted my good looking wife on!!!
I would feel a lot better about buying a used Craigslist name brand bicycle than buying a brand new Walmart huffy. Sorry.

 

[jamesdart]

Me too after looking at them in person.

 

[Loosenuts]

My local Walmart has bikes right at the door when you exit. I glance at them when walking by. I can't stand the right off the boat from China look they have. Cheap paint and welds that look like a 5 year old laid them.

 

[deorman]

Bingo. The "cantilever" tubes are purely stylistic and are in no way structurally important to the front triangle. That frame may well break, but it won't be where you are focusing your attention, or as result of that weld.... (in my humble opinion )

I would trust a good nail-sized spot weld over any weld on that bike. Any of them could be a slag-hole on the inside, and under the paint.

 

[sensor]

Hmmm. Well what do you expect from The Devil at $88?
Even good old American made bikes can break:

Wife was riding and it just gave up the ghost a few years back. She is far from over weight and she doesn't do anything but pedal. Maybe the 1018 tubing Schwinn used in 65 was just as good as the Huffy steel now?

 

[Mope Head]

I guess we'll know the answer to that when we look at today's Huffys in 50 years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mikeeebikey]

I guess we'll know the answer to that when we look ay's Huffys in 50 years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bahahahaha! 50 years! They're all gonna be a red streak running down the driveway! Frame undone by oxidization!

 

[ZygoteLittle]

Classic examples of the “Race to the Bottom”; those are built to last one riding season, after that buy another one – after 10-years and $880- you’ll still have a new bike for the season – would a $880 bike have lasted as long and been ridden with no maintenance costs’ over that 10-year period?

Such goes the economics of bicycle ownership today.

BTW – I have no interest in giving-up on my 44-year old Peugeot UO-8 she still rides a charm and should still be around 50-years from now!

 

[ZygoteLittle]

A good bike only lasts 4 years max up here winter riding in the salt without parts replacement. An aluminum bike frame would last longer but everything steel is shot. I was using thrift store frames for winter riding but thought I would try a Cranbrook frame and see how that lated. For me the winter bike frames have always broken at the down tube or seat tube - bottom bracket junction. Salt piles up here and it accumulates on top of the bottom bracket. Salt water also goes down the drain holes and through the seat post to settle at the bottom bracket. In the past I had a winter bike and so did my son, who rode it to grade school in the winter. On the way home from school he would jump off 6 foot snow banks into driveways and break the salt weakened frame. His excuse was that he was practicing for spring BMX racing. I could hear him riding home giggling and when I looked up from shoveling I could see the frame bouncing and dragging on the ground with each rotation of the crank. I thought about buying a new fat tire bike, but I hate to destroy one in the salt. So it is cheap frames and junk parts for winter riding. You would not want to put a 50 year old Peugeot through winter riding up here. It would be Peujunk after one winter. The Cranbrook frame has only been through one winter so it is an experiment in progress. It is still going and I think it will last longer than 4 years, but I trashed the worst of the parts. Will it be usable in 44 years, NO.

Here in Northern New England we don’t ride our good bikes or motorcycles until after several good rains have washed all of the salt and sand away. Beater bikes are the norm here in winter!

U-Per’s Rule and pasties are the shirtnits! (I have family in Newbury!)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BLUE!!!

 

[Nagant]

Hmmm. Well what do you expect from The Devil at $88?
Even good old American made bikes can break:

Wife was riding and it just gave up the ghost a few years back. She is far from over weight and she doesn't do anything but pedal. Maybe the 1018 tubing Schwinn used in 65 was just as good as the Huffy steel now?

I hope she wasn't hurt when that happened. Thanks for sharing what happened to her bike. It helps to let people know any bike, or anything for that matter, can break.

 

[dougfisk]

...Keweenaw got 340 inches of snow so far this year and it will probably snow more. I live in Marquette and we only got 202 inches, which is 6 inches below average. I just wish it would get a little warmer...

Good Lord man, have you ever been to Arizona?